Official: Sino-African cooperation has no strings attached

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The seventh meeting of the China-Africa think tanks forum is held in Beijing on July 4 and 5. More than 380 representatives from China and 52 African countries attend the meeting.

At the opening session, Assistant Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong delivered a speech on China-Africa cooperation. Chen said, over the past four decades, political relations between China and Africa have grown from strength to strength, the economic cooperation of the two sides has achieved phenomenal growth, and people-to-people ties have expanded and generated fresh impetus to China-Africa friendship.

The seventh meeting of the China-Africa think tanks forum is held in Beijing on July 4 and 5. /CGTN Photo

He also stressed that China's cooperation with Africa has no political strings attached, and it is economically viable and win-win in nature.

Among all kinds of ties, people-to-people exchanges are taken as the fundamental form of mutual understanding and collaboration. This is especially true for China and Africa.

Confucius Institutes are considered to be the main providers of high-quality Chinese language education worldwide. An education expert said, for African youth, the choice to learn a different language means a chance to live a different life – a better life.

Niu Changsong, associate research fellow of Zhejiang Normal University said, by learning Chinese, African students will have more chances to combine their personal fortunes with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and China-Africa strategic cooperation.

As Confucius said, "In a party of three there must be one whom I can learn from." David Monyae, director of Confucius Institute in University of Johannesburg, said there are things for both sides to learn from each other.

"I think what makes any nation develop is the great attention paid to its youth, and a youth that lives in want is a youth that cannot grow and develop. Therefore, I think the youth of Africa and youth of China have much more to learn from each other."

Learning is not just for the youth. The meeting is one of the supporting activities for the upcoming Beijing Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which will take place in September. Both sides believe there will be lots of agreements, and much to learn.